Degraded Blood
by Autobot Xena
Summary: She has been a human these last thirteen years. But after being attacked at school by a metal giant, she starts to question her origins...and her sanity. Rated T for possible language and violence. COMMENCE THE AWESOMENESS!
1. Chapter 1

Okay, people! New story! Lets go!

Teacher, Eliza's looking away again!

I snapped to attention while everyone else laughed. I had started off into space again during test time. I shot Raymond a death look before looking back at Mr. Tarbi, my superbly-boring History teacher. He shook his head in disapproval at me and motioned me to take out my workbook.

"You can't just do nothing during the end of a test, Miss Blade. I expect you to be at the top of your game, since the Finals are coming up soon."

Ah, the Finals. A week-long series of tests that can either guide us through the gate of high school or lock that gate forever. So far, I have had very high marks for the tests, but the ones ending eighth grade would be harder than any of them. I was studying extra-hard, especially since I wanted to come through normal.

I flipped to the worksheet I needed to complete and looked at the era. The Industrial Revolution. When the thing to do back then was rise, comply and improvise. We had only studied this chapter a couple weeks ago, so there was no problem remembering the people. John D. Rockefeller. Alexander Graham Bell. Thomas Edison. The list went on.

Of course, the second I placed my pencil on my paper Mr. Tarbi asked the class to prepare for passing period. Typical. I placed my things back where they belonged and turned to my classmates. Ashlee sat in front of me, and was now seated wrong to talk to us. Rachel was still working on her questions, as she had finished before me and had the sense to take out her workbook. Dallis (a girl, by the way) was seated two rows down and was talking very loudly to get my attention.

"Well, that was hard" stated Ashlee. She never studied for tests, but usually got an okay grade on most of them. I shrugged, looking at a random classmate. Tests were somehow easy for me, since I was the star child in the class.

"I bet you did great Emma. Your test scores are always better than anyone elses." Rachel piped in. She was kind of the optimist of the group, never minding someone who was a bore to others. Even if her optimism was a little annoying sometimes.

"Whatever. Hey Dallis, what do we have next?" Dallis looked at the schedule with hopeful eyes, which suddenly brightened. "JES! We got P.E next dude! WHOHOHOOO!"

P.E next, huh? We were practicing soccer right now. My team was less than perfect, but in truth, it wasn't really 'my team'. There was the complete controller Patrick, the over enthusiastic Dylan, Kevin (I call him The Silent One), Jessica, Ashley, and me. I was always goalie, because I was the only bad player not scared of the ball. Ashley and Jessica were always on defense, and Kevin on middle, so that left Dylan and Patrick to strut their stuff on the field while we just waited patiently. In the end, Patrick would call us lazy and storm off. I brushed it off most of the time, but I always kinda fume at him for not letting me play. I just wanted to run around, be part of the game! Not sit and wait until a smart enough opponent breaks the barrier and tries to score. I wanted action!

The bell rang, snapping me out of my thoughts. I grabbed my backpack and started to head out when Someone started laughing. I looked behind me to find that Raymond had unzipped my backpack. Now all my stuff was all over the floor of the room. I quickly knelt down to pick it up before the ball rang. Thank god that P.E was just a couple of buildings away. As I stuffed my papers in my pack, I noticed a gleaming light in the sky. "I like the stars," I noted, smiling to myself as I walked speedily down to P.E, "they shine like candles." I slap myself in stupidity after that. It was day, you idiot. No stars are out at this time. "Then what was that?" I thought, searching the sky for the light. Nothing was in the sky except for a few birds, but they were common crows, not any shiny birds. Ah well.

"Soccer again? How many times does she want us to fail?" Jessica exclaimed after looking at the match sheet on the girl's locker room door. We were facing Ebby's team, who were the best at almost everything Mrs. Ganther threw at us. I shrugged as I quickly brushed my hair back into a ponytail. In sports, my hair always gets in my face. Pulling it back gave me a sense of sight. After changing, we lined up for the matches.

"Team number 3! Patrick's team! Go get the ball and go up above. You get the longways field. Get going!"

I grabbed the ball as we started to go up. Next thing I knew, I was on the ground. Okay, scratch that, EVERYBODY was on the ground. Some muffled yells and surprised squeals erupted from the students. I stood back up, looking around for the cause. Then I did something that probably saved my life.

I looked up.

I hope you likey. I couldn't get this one out of my head for the last couple of days, so I got rid of it.

Sry it is so short…I promise better next chappie!

Please Rate and review. And for those who don't have accounts, you can still leave a review. They are called anonymous reviews. DO IT, I SAY!

Over and out, my readers!


	2. Chapter 2

Hey guys. New chappie. I better keep up on this one. Enjoyz!

The light was back. It was kind of circling lazily in the air, as if it was a falcon.

Exactly if it was a falcon.

Suddenly, the light started to get bigger. And bigger. And bigger until-

BOOMM!

It had shot something at us. Grant it, it was small, but there was no question about that light. It was an enemy. Shooting at us. Shooting at me.

I dove for cover as more bullets rained from the sky. No one else seemed to be hurt, but they were certainly scared. The girls squealed and screamed, clinging on to boys who were equally scared or cowarding. I looked for my friends, thankful that they were all huddled together in a group under our enormous shade structure. I peeked my head out to look around, only to have my head nearly shot off. Nowhere was safe now.

I heard a whirr-chik-chik above me, and almost as if the world was on mute, everyone became silent. I scanned their faces, all registering to such of horror or awe. I didn't dare look above me, instead waiting for whatever was up there to search.

"HUMANS!" screeched the thing above me. Its voice had a rough mechanical edge to it, almost as if it was speaking with a really bad microphone. "We are looking for a human. She is designated as Elizabeth Blade. Do you have any information on this human? If you hand over this human, all of you will survive. If you don't…"

I heard a barely audible "psst" beside me. I glanced around to see Catherine, one of my friends. She had dove under the visitors range of vision and had joined me. She put her finger over her mouth and pointed to the lunch area. Of course. If we could get to the lunch area, then we could notify someone. Almost as if Catherine heard my thoughts, she flipped open her phone. No signal. I tried my phone (I had my own hotspot in my backpack), once again with no signal. Whoever these people are must have taken away any chance of long-distance help. Dab flabbit.

Suddenly, one of the people ducked their head to look at us. The thing was a robot falcon, with mechanical wings and two red eyes. As menacing as it looked, the eyes stayed with me. Two glowing coals of death.

It screeched in amusement as it flew under the overpass, grabbing the collar of my lather jacket. It did the same with Catherine, only digging into her flesh sincde her jacket was thinner than mine. As she cried out in pain, we both were dragged out from under the structure. I struggled with the bird, which only resulted in my jacket getting torn. Oh well. I didn't like that collar anyway. After five minutes of struggling, the thing suddenly spun into itself and threw us up in the air. We were then caught by a pair of giant, cold, mechanical hands. I looked up into the face of a metal monster, with once again tow glowing red eyes staring hungrily into my own. Catherine squirmed and squeaked with the growing pressure of the monster's hand. I stayed put, too tired to fight anymore.

"Well, look who we have here…trying to skip your execution, hmm? That's too bad, because Laserbeak here would just_ love_ to rip you open." He gestured to the mechanical bird, who drew its seemingly large talons at the words. I took a deep breath and relaxed my body, aware that if he relaxed his grip, I might have a chance of getting out. So, I did what I did best. I cussed him out.

"Love to rip me open my ass, I don't think a pigeon can do that," I spat back, glaring at the robots eyes with focus and anger. If I could keep him distracted, maybe Catherine would escape. The bot only widened his eyes in annoyance, but kept…um….oh right, Laserbeak at bay.

I drew my best face, my bored face, and looked up at him again. "I feel sorry for you, you know. Coming here with hopes of going against me and Catherine, and all you bring is yourself, your posse, and a shit-faced bird. I have to admit," I smiled up at him, narrowing my eyes for the added effect, "you are the weakest team I have ever had to dealt with."

That did it. I got the bot so mad that he threw me up in the air to play target practice. Little did he know, he accidentally released Catherine to the ground in protest. Being Catherine, the second she hit the ground, she started to spaz out. "If I take my shots," she proclaimed, spinning in her lazy, loopy circle, "will everything stay SHINY?" I watched he grow smaller, then grow larger as I fell down with great force. The bot must have thrown me about five hundred feet straight up. As I fell back down, knowing soon I will be a human pancake, I suddenly black out. I fell something catch me, then send me back up. Again….again…again. I opened my eyes to find….that I had landed on the trampoline. As embarrassed as I felt, I noticed that I was jumping to about two hundred feet now. Maybe…yep, already I had a plan.

I angled myself to about 84 degrees and waited for the mech. He was looking for my body, since he expected me to crash at unearthly speeds. Finally, I was as high as I was about to be. I hit the trampoline at an angle shooting me just over the mech. As I prepared to meet him in free fall, I noticed a bunch of cars speeding through the school. Great. He brought friends. As I focused back on my target at around eighty feet above me, I heard a strange sound. Like, a whrrrr-chk-chk-chk. I glanced around again to find that the new robots were fighting the old ones. Right after minutely celebrating in my mind that two mere humans were not going to fight without help, my stomach suddenly dropped.

One of the robots had tackled my target. I couldn't change direction in time.

Frag.

I hoped you liked! I am kind of on a writers block for The Decision, so feel free to cuss me out about it all you want. Yeah, that's right. That is my excuse for many months of posting close to nothing. Once again, kind of a short chapter. With school about to end and STAR exams coming in two days, I really will have to push it to be able to finish the next one Ah well.

Finally, thank you for your patience.

Review question: What is your phobia? Leave a review and share with me! I has a phobia of the dark. **Creak* WHAT THE SLAG WAS THAT!**


	3. Chapter 3

Alright. This better be good.

Catherine's POV

As I dropped from the sky, many multicolored bubbles erupted around me. I felt euphoric to the extent I did not know. My mind showed me scary things, happy things, things in polka-dot underwear, and so on. A tremor shook the living daylights out of me, making me laugh to the heavens. I spin around in loopy circles, feeling like an Oompa Loompa on a sugar high. I giggle as I stumble around, spouting insensible nonsense. Then I say the stupidest thing ever.

"If I take my shots, will everything stay SHINY?"

Saying something I understood suddenly stopped everything. The hallucinations disappeared, the dizziness stopped, and my direction suddenly snapped into gear. I blinked, making sense of the scene around me. The government had pulled me under the shade structure after evacuating all the students. Dammit. I wanted to cross a couple of people who must die off of my people-who-must-die list. I looked around, and was about to get up when a 40-ton robot nearly stepped on me. I flinch back, caught by military personnel and held down. I must be hallucinating. This can't be real. The footsteps in the concrete, the dents in the classrooms, all of it. Not real.

But it was. The more I regained my senses, the more detailed and real these monsters became. Metal giants, moving with superb and deadly accuracy. Out of the corner of my eye, I see…Eliza. What? I rub my eyes, hoping at least that was a hallucination. Nope. Not even close. Eliza was bouncing on a trampoline on heights I didn't even know were healthy or possible. She seemed ready to launch herself, right over a- oooooooohhhhhh. THAT'S what she was doing. Landing on the big robot, though? Wasn't that a little suicidal? I watch her jump, right over the robot. Then, out of nowhere, I see a small, yellow robot attack her target. Small target. No target. Thanks a lot, Captain Clueless.

Eliza was now falling at around 90 miles per hour headed for solid concrete. I froze, my mind going at a trillion miles an hour. I glance at everything, my eye catching on the girls' locker room. Oh god. I can save her. I glance up at the sky, silently praying that please God I know that Eliza's an Atheist and she doesn't believe in you but if you are at least a little kind let me save her and don't let her die please please pleasepleaseplease PLEASE!

Mrs. Ganther, our P.E teacher, had a son who played football. In order for him to practice, she had bought a football launching machine for him to use. After he quit, she lent the machine to the school so that the football intramural teams could use them. If she still kept it in there… I opened the door to her office, searching only for a second before finding it. Thank god for it being of aluminum, or I wouldn't be able to carry the damned thing. I haul it out, grabbing a big bag of footballs. I load one, aiming for Eliza the best I could. I closed my eyes as I let go, hearing the football whistle through the air. I heard a thump, and opened my eyes in alarm. Eliza had caught the ball; the force of it was enough for her to be sent off-course to land on…a government SUV. Sorry, Eliza, but it's better than concrete and asphalt any day. Believe me. After making sure she landed on the car, I notice the battle around me. Absentmindedly dodging giant feet and the occasional bullet, I make my way back under the structure. Feeling weak, I pass out to strain, nervousness, and the sound of a gunshot.

I wake up later to find the sounds of battle gone, but the robots still there. Some of them, anyway. I feel the side of my head, flinching from a huge bump where I must have hit it on the ground when I passed out. Why did I do that? I felt weak. Why did I feel weak? Because I spent a lot of energy on saving Eliza. Eliza? ELIZA!

I jump up, only to be gently held back by medical people. My surroundings had been so blurred before, only to realize that I was being given oxygen. Oh god, thank you for this. I slowly get up, no restriction given this time. I take off the mask, looking around for anyone else. I saw Eliza, curled up in fetal position, being given oxygen as well. I run over, a million thoughts running through my head again. Is she dead? Is she comatose? Any broken bones? Skull fracture? Popped lungs?

In all these thoughts, Eliza opened her eyes, suddenly coughing into the oxygen mask. The medical people remove it, letting her breathe freely. She slowly gets up, only to hold her side. A huge gash, now reopened, had invaded her right side. She stood a little hunched to the right, her face also cut and bruised. Her mind, however, was fully alert and aware of what had happened. Slowly, as not to trigger any pain, she looks at me, then the faces of the robots around us. Wait…how did they circle us so fast? And so quietly, too? I backed up a few feet, for safety. Suddenly, one of the robots laugh loudly.

"Aww, the little human's scared of ya, Prowl*. You're even scary to a human!"

I look up to a 15-foot robot, his black and gold paintjob glinting in the sunlight. His eyes were only one, a visor broken up to look like sunglasses, almost. I glance at the robot who had made fun of 'Prowl' and stare at him. Then I go over to Prowl and stand by him, his aura easily serious and deadly. I take a deep breath and look up at him, shooting a puzzled glance at him. He looked blankly back, then raised one eyebrow in response. Okay, communication=good. Now for the introduction.

"So, your name is Prowl, huh?"

He starts for a second, then looks back at me. Out of nowhere, a half-smile plays on his mouth.

"Yeah. Humans tell me yours is Catherine? That's a nice name."

I smile back, glad we made a connection. "Not as awesome as Prowl. By the way, who's the bot that said I was scared of you?"

He motioned to a green robot, shorter and, must I say it, fatter than Prowl. I narrowed my eyes, then walked up to the little tub o' axle grease.

"Aww, look at the little prissy two-shoes bot. He's so cute, I just wanna smack him upside the head, don't you Prowl?"

The green bot, completely taken aback by this, backed away a few yards. I smile joyfully as Prowl growled at the green bot for the added touch. I laugh, deciding that Prowl was the good guy, at least for now.

Elizabeth's POV

Oh god, my head hurts. Where the hell am I? I slowly awaken myself from the trance that took up the few seconds of being on my feet. You know when you have been sitting down for some time, then when you get up, you can't see anything for a few seconds? Well, that's what happened to me, only it lasted for a good minute and a half. I start to lose my sense of balance, growing steadily dizzier with each blink. I start to fall, my muscles tensing for the introduction of face to concrete. Suddenly, a giant metal thing catches me. I never knew the car was so close to me. After resting a few seconds, I suddenly realize that the thing below me is moving. Breathing. Alive.

I feel my way around it, the shape seemingly of a giant metal hand. I suddenly feel as if I'm watched, and I turn around to meet a giant pair of robotic, blue eyes. I seem transfixed by the glow of pure blue plasma glowing from those eyes, and I lose myself in their depths. I slowly make out a face, shoulders, torso, and the rest. Realizing how long I've been staring at the guy, I get up, brushing myself off and straightening my clothes. I hear a small, giggle-like noise from the robot, so I spin around and give him one of my accusing looks. He just breaks out into a full on laugh instead. I can't help but laugh too, and besides, at least I know that this bot's good. For now, at least.

Out of nowhere, Catherine steps in front of me and tries to shoo the guy away.

"Dude, what the hell are you doin?"

"Making him go away! He was the one who tackled your target! I had to intervene and save your sorry ass while he just kept on going!"

I back up towards the yellow bot, holding my hands up in surrender. "Dude, it's cool. I saw him tackle my objective, but he brought me to the medic after he found me. I swear he made up for it. Do you still want me stuck on the roof of that SUV? I would be neck-deep in scrap, my sorry friend."

Catherine stopped, then sighed as she relaxed. She pointed a long piece of metal (which I knew no origin to) and pointed it at the bot. "All right, you win. But I swear, if you do that sort of stunt again, I will crawl inside you and rip you apart wire by wire. Got it?"

The yellow guy just put his hands up, letting out a few scraps of radio nonsense I couldn't understand. I did catch a couple words, though. Psycho…cool…again. I smiled as I threw a look at him, cross between puzzled and humored. You know what? I like this guy!

Suddenly, the biggest, tallest robot I have ever seen walked up to us and knelt down. He looked sad, aged even. His blue and red armor shone in the sunlight, but bore many battle wounds. His face was wise, experienced, and leader-like.

"I am Optimus Prime. Leader of the last Autobots known upon this Earth. You two humans have just encountered our mortal enemy, the Decepticons. Because of this encounter, you now hold classified information that could destroy the Earth, and your society. However, we will give you a choice."

My head spun. A choice, between what? Since when have these guys been here? And when has me, myself, and I been legal property of the government? I don't want to be property of people who can't even try to fix a stock drop without pissing their pants!

Catherine seemed to think the same. "Um, I'm sorry? Since when have you guys been with the government? And how in the right mind did you even get here? Why-" a black and gold robot put his hand on her shoulder, mumbling something in her ear while she held a face of confusion and annoyance. I, in turn, still contemplate on what the macho mech said. A choice? Between what? Life and death? Knowledge and innocence? Please, I think, taking turns at staring at all the Autobots, I am never innocent.

Five minutes later, we have been given an explanation on everything that happened. After that, one of the government guys spoke into a walkie-talkie, asking for a transport helicopter.

"Well, girls. We fully understand that you want to see your family again, so we will give you sedatives and pretend this never happened. Capiche?

Once again, Catherine thought otherwise. "They said a choice, didn't they? Well, let's hear it."

"I'm sorry miss, but we can't let you do that. You are now under the control of the government, and you have no voice in this. We will copter you home, and you will forget everything that ever happened today. Alri-"

"No."

Everyone was looking at me now. The impact my statement had made suddenly drew everyone's attention, even the Autobots. I drew a sharp, lonely breath (it seemed like no one else was breathing) and faced the guy.

"No. Not alright. You people have just barged in here, let a couple of Decepticons battle in public territory, and introduced me to fifty-foot aliens. Do you possibly believe that I could forget that? After all that happened? You, sir, are a good-for-nothing stuck-up little piece of shit, you understand? Those Decepticons came looking for us. They found us, and asked for us to be killed. I will not be kept in the dark about something that will kill Catherine and me anyway. If you want to take us home, you will have to use force. Because, for all I know, I will not bow down to people who LIE to us."

Silence followed, making me think that I messed up. I hear a clapping sound from behind, of which Catherine, the Prowl, the Ratchet, then everyone else joined in. All the military seemed stunned, defeated even. Bumblebee (finally got the courage to ask for his name) whistled, which made my face hot. I punched his armor, of which he pretended to be hurt. If you think about it, he's kind of cute. Shut up brain, now's not the time to develop a crush on a 25-foot alien. I smile, then face Optimus and regain my composure.

"Well, Optimus, you said something about a choice?"

You can either stay within the safety of your family, and return to normal life, or you may come with us, and never see your family again."

"Go with you? Where?"

"We are attempting to locate the Allspark, which I have told you before had resided on Earth. With you, we could easily blend in to Earth's enviroment much easier and find it much faster. So, will you join us?"

I think about this. My safety would be endangered everyday, but maybe after we find it we could go home. I glance at Bumblebee, who was giving me a hopeful face. Let's see, I wouldn't want to die, but if the Decepticons were going to destroy the Earth like Optimus said, then it is an obvious choice. Mom, Dad…I love you, but I hope you understand where I'm going. I join Catherine, who had a serene look on her face. We both looked up at them, and said one word.

"Yes"


End file.
